Ex-zoning official: Not so fast on central Greenwich fire station tear-down

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One-time Planning and Zoning Commissioner Frank Farricker is calling on his former colleagues to reopen their deliberations on municipal improvement status for the central fire station project, a request that town officials characterized as somewhat unprecedented.

The commission granted improvement status for the $20.5 million project by a vote of 4-1 at its July 26 meeting, advancing plans to demolish the Art Deco-era building and replace it with a new structure at Havemeyer Place.

Given to projects and property acquisitions that benefit the town, the special designation requires final approval from the Representative Town Meeting.

Farricker contends that the scope of the controversial tear-down and rebuilding project conflicts with a previous plan approved by the town in 2004 for the construction of a broader public safety complex on the same site.

One of the conditions of that approval required the town to renovate the central fire station, according to Farricker, who served on the commission from 2004 until March 31 of this year.

"It was predicated that the fire station stay as is and be restored," said Farricker, an advocate for saving the downtown landmark.

Farricker also claims that the project is not consistent with the town Plan of Conservation and Development, which he said places an emphasis on preserving historic buildings such as the 75-year-old central fire station.

"It's good policy to renovate your historic structures," said Farricker, who was passed over for renomination to the commission in February by the Board of Selectmen.

Donald Heller, commission chairman for the past 4½ years and a member for seven years, could not recall any requests of this kind during his tenure.

"We're thinking about that right now," Heller said of whether to reopen deliberations. "We have made no decision."

Town Attorney John Wayne Fox acknowledged that the legal aspects of granting multiple municipal improvements for the same property have come up.

"They are issues that we have looked at. Can you do a new MI with respect to the Fire Department?" Fox said. "I think they're fair questions."

Fox declined to comment further, saying he didn't want to opine on an issue that could come before the commission.

Town officials say that the costs of renovating the building far outweigh the benefits, with the price tag of a code-compliant new facility estimated at $20.5 million, compared to $28.9 million if they were to try to go the preservation route.

In the shadow of the town's new state-of-the-art police headquarters, the central fire station is in disrepair and is said by the project's supporters to be a cause of poor morale for the firefighters.

The structure doesn't meet the state's current codes for public safety buildings, which town officials said have to be able to stand up to certain amounts of wind, rain and seismic activity such as an earthquake.

"You can do this firehouse better and cheaper by renovating where the building is now," Farricker said.

Kaliko sent a letter to First Selectman Peter Tesei on July 30 expressing concerns that the town had not fully explored all its options for renovating the facility, which he said could be brought up to code using a different set of standards that would still make the structure safe, but cost less.

"I couldn't understand the justification that they were giving for having to use a certain code for the building," Kaliko said.

Kaliko is also calling for the zoning commission to reopen deliberations on the matter. Tesei said the request is under the commission's purview.

Public Works officials are developing a response to the question of why they chose the renovation option that they did as part of their cost-benefit analysis, according to Tesei.